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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29795259">Cut on the Crease</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostbunne/pseuds/Ghostbunne'>Ghostbunne</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MLAndersen0 Oneshots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>MLAndersen0</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anger, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a sad ending, Arguing, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Canon Compliant, During Canon, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Extended Scene, Family, Family Issues, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, Mental Health Issues, Past Character Death, Sad, Sad Ending, Shaun Tells Michael He Deserves To Die, Unresolved Argument</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 16:54:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,797</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29795259</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostbunne/pseuds/Ghostbunne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Oh, I know you're trying to mend this, But don't pretend like you know me well. I hate to say it but the damage is done.</p><p>An extension of Michael and Shaun’s argument in the hotel during Brotherly Love.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Michael Andersen &amp; Shaun Andersen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MLAndersen0 Oneshots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2188248</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cut on the Crease</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You want me… you want me to touch it?” Michael asked, his voice wavering. He was shivering, both from the cold and frightened from what had happened. Shaun looked at him, a brow raised, almost confused.</p><p>	“Yeah? If you remember where this clock hand is from touching a necklace, you’ve gotta remember more if you actually touch the hand.” Shaun said a conclusion that seemed completely logical as he spoke to Michael who only seemed to grow more upset, more worried. “Right?”</p><p>	“No, I’m sorry I… I can’t do that.” Michael mumbled, his voice unsteady. He wrung his hands, an overwhelming sense of fear creeping in. He thought about what had happened just finding the hand, the pain, the bleeding, all of it. “I can’t do that. I’m really fucking sorry, but I can’t do that. You saw what it did to me, and you know that that fucking clock hand is so much more powerful.”</p><p>	“Are you kidding me?” Shaun scoffed.</p><p>	“It could fucking kill me, Shaun. It could hurt me really bad, it could fuck me up.” Michael said, his voice rising, not with anger, but with fear. Michael did not want to die. It was the last thing he wanted. And the clock hand was powerful enough that it could easily kill him. “And I don’t… I don’t…”</p><p>	“It could hurt you?” Shaun said, his voice incredulous. He looked away from Michael, tense, growing angry.</p><p>	“Shaun I just don’t want to touch it,” Michael said, bowing his head down to look at the floor, hands still nervously clasped together as he spoke. He brought his hands up to his head, growing more and more upset as the conversation continued.</p><p>	“You know, ever since you’ve been back in my fucking life you’ve just… over and over ruined, my life. Ruined everything good.” Shaun said as Michael began to cry. He mumbled something unintelligible, but Shaun didn’t care, and he continued to speak. “And you won’t do this one thing for me.”</p><p>	“It could fucking kill me. I don’t want to die.” Michael said, looking up at Shaun, his face contorted into an expression of fear, of pain as tears streaked down his face. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”</p><p>	“You don’t want to die?” Shaun said as Michael continued to apologize tearfully, truly just not wanting to die. Not wanting to touch the hand. “Stormy died for this.”</p><p>	“I’m so fucking sorry about that Shaun, but I can’t do this,” Michael said, his words splintered as he spoke, from the stress, from the tears, from his regret. All he could think of was that he didn’t want to die. He hadn’t wanted anyone to die.  “I can’t fucking do this.”</p><p>	“You’re pathetic.” Shaun spat angrily.</p><p>	“You don’t fucking mean that,” Michael responded weakly, the two words cutting like a knife. He pressed his head into his hands and Shaun paced, anger emanating off of him. He lunged forward, talking directly into Michael’s ear as he pointed a finger at him, an accusing gesture.</p><p>	“You just do one thing for me!” Shaun said as Michael began to sob, his body shaking from the motion of it, As Shaun continued Michael laid a hand on the top of his head, laying his other on his lap, hiding his face in the crook of his elbow. “You just do one thing for me and then you can go! Just one fucking thing.”</p><p>	“This is bullshit.” Shaun angrily sighed under his breath as Michael continued to sob. “This is fucking bullshit.”</p><p>	“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Michael said, his voice muffled as he continued to hide his face in his knees, both hands over his head as though in a tornado drill, or preparing to prevent being hit.</p><p>	“Screw this,” Shaun mumbled. He picked up a camera that had been filming the whole ordeal. He didn’t even care what it had seen. He was in the right, Michael was being greedy by not doing this one thing for him, by overreacting, by being irrational. His hypocrisy was like the bite of cold wind. He didn’t want to die? Stormy had died. She was innocent, and she had died for no reason at all. Michael on the other hand, all of this was his fault. If the hands would kill him... maybe he... Shaun didn't finish the thought, but he didn't rescind it either. He knew how it ended, and he found it to be true.</p><p>	“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Michael continued to mumble anxiously, curled into a tight ball.</p><p>	“This is fucking over.” Shaun huffed. He began walking towards the door of the hotel room but quickly turned to face Michael once more, his words dripping with hatred, with venom. “Fuck you, Michael.”</p><p>	“Where are you going?” Michael asked, glancing up from his position. His eyes were puffy rimmed with red, skin irritated from tears. His voice was wavering. After everything Shaun had done to him, had said to him, had said about him, Michael didn’t want him to go. He didn’t want to be alone. He inched forward, hoping Shaun would listen to him for once. He ended up off the bed, sitting on the floor with his back pressed against its frame. He looked up at Shaun, but when his brother looked back at him he averted his eyes, a deep sense of shame washing over him.</p><p>	“I’m going to finish this,” Shaun answered, fiddling with the doorknob, trying to get the door open, his fingers slipping slightly as he rushed due to his anger. “I don’t fucking need you.”</p><p>	“Shaun please,” Michael begged, looking at him with fearful eyes. “Please don’t leave me alone. I don’t want to be alone.”</p><p>	“Then just fucking do this for me, Michael!” Shaun said, turning to face him, seething, his goal of leaving cast aside for the time being. “It isn’t that hard! You just touch the hand and we can end everything!”</p><p>	“I can’t Shaun! I’m scared to die, I don’t want to die, please… please just listen to me.” Michael begged, getting to a shaky stand. Shaun rolled his eyes, sighing. All he could think was that it was this song and dance again.  “You don’t understand what it’s like. You’ve never understood. You say I’ve ruined your life, that I’ve ruined everything good that you have. How do you think I feel all the time? Do you think it just doesn’t bother me?”</p><p>	“I was in a mental hospital for 16 years and you’re the one with the ruined life?” Michael said, his sobs falling back slightly, but his words still broken up. It felt like his throat was closed, and a tight, anxious feeling had formed in his chest. He sat down on the bed again, putting his head in his hands as he spoke.  “I get that this isn’t easy, that you’ve dealt with a lot of shit in the last few years, but I’ve dealt with it almost my whole life. And I feel like shit knowing you’re part of this because of me, that Stormy is dead because of me. I feel like shit constantly. And I’m so beyond sorry, I’m so fucking sorry, but it’s never enough.”</p><p>	“Because you never do enough, Michael!” Shaun shouted at him. “You bawl your eyes out and you say you’re sorry but you never actually do a fucking thing to make it better! Look at you now! We could get out of this Michael, and you’re scared it’s going to hurt you when it could make everything better!”</p><p>	“You don’t know what it fucking feels like Shaun!” Michael shouted back, his feelings boiling over. “You don’t know what it felt like. It felt like I was fucking dying Shaun, and you don’t fucking care about anyone other than yourself! It could kill me! That’s what I’m scared of, but you don’t fucking care if I die!”</p><p>	“You’re right,” Shaun said, his teeth grit together tightly. “I don’t care if you fucking die, because all of this is your fault. Stormy didn’t deserve to die, but you? Michael, you do.”</p><p>	“I… You don’t… you don’t mean that Shaun. You can’t mean that.” Michael said, his expression turning from anger to sadness to shock. He didn’t know how to react. “You’re my brother, Shaun you… you don’t want me to die.”</p><p>	“Lying to yourself isn’t healthy, Michael,” Shaun said as he turned back to the door, swinging it open. He sighed, turning back to face Michael. “I don’t care if we’re related. If you were really my brother, you’d do this for me, no hesitation.”</p><p>	“Would you do it for me?” Michael said, shivering as the cold air from the open door hit him. Shaun paused. </p><p>	“What?” He asked, eyebrows raised.</p><p>	“If you… if you were in my position, if you had to touch the hand, and it could kill you, and I asked you to, would you do it for me?” Michael was curled up again, looking away from Shaun, hugging himself tightly. Shaun closed his mouth, lips drawn into a tight line. He didn’t have anything of worth to say, because he knew the answer was no. Michael scoffed, his voice cracked as he spoke again, tears welling up once more.  “That’s what I thought.”</p><p>“Michael…” Shaun said, his voice drifting off. He didn’t have anything else to say. Nothing to justify his thoughts. So he simply repeated himself. “Michael…”</p><p>“What, Shaun? What else do you want to say?” Micheal responded, violently wiping the tears from his eyes. “Want to reiterate that you don’t care? That you’d rather me do it than be dead than find another way?”</p><p>“Michael you… you just need to do this. For everyone.” Shaun said, regret for his words seeping into his voice too little too late, especially when he only regretted them for their consequences, not for their actual meaning.</p><p>“For everyone, Shaun? Or for you.” Michael spat angrily. He stood up, walking towards his younger brother. “Because it sounds a hell of a lot like it’s for you. You can get out. I’m alright being alone now.”</p><p>“Fine,” Shaun said, setting his Jaw. He slammed the door behind him as he left, stopping only to breathe in the cold air as he fumed. He didn’t turn back, didn’t even look. He marched onwards and got in the car, driving off.</p><p>Michael collapsed backwards on the bed, everything hitting him. Again he began to sob, at his lowest point now. Michael had no one. He had done a good job of pushing everyone away. Sure, Shaun not might have cared, but he could’ve just kept pretending he did, could’ve just done what Shaun asked. Michael felt miserable as he turned onto his side, shutting the lamp off, and trying to fall asleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A friend prompted me to write out Shaun and Michael's argument in brotherly love and extend it! I hope it turned out well. Comments are appreciated!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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